There is a land that is in constant darkness. When it is night, the stars shine with the ebony sky. The sun rises with lovely rays of tangerine and corn silk, but the heavens remain dim and dusky. Soon, the sun rays disappear into the darkness of night. The source is a man made of crystal with a heart made of the sun and its fire, whose sunlight radiates into the world with an array of colors.

Somewhere in the woods lives a village of people made of glass. When one is birthed, he or she is somewhat cracked, and there glass is hazy, yet tinted with a special shade of color unique to the person. The heart can be seen, and is made of an alabaster moon with the colors of an opal that reflects the sunlight of the sun man. As they mature into adults, their hearts are meant to more radiantly reflect said sunlight to illuminate the land for themselves and others. And as this sunlight is more revealed, the colors in their glass are more vibrant and intricate in their lovely patterns.

There was a time in this land where the sun man arrived as the rest of them, born of a moon woman. He was perfect and without cracks, whose heart was the noon sun and whose glass was heated when he touched a person around him. His heart already illuminated the world around him and caused some of the lantern people to search for their familiar darkness to hide in. As he matured, the colors in his glass developed into the most vivid rainbow of colors and strands of gold ignited by the sun grew as his hair.

The heat of his hands was so hot that when he laid them on a moon person, the cracks in their glass were melted into perfection. Their glass was also cleared so that their hearts were more visible. But some moon people, the same who strove to hide themselves, remained cracked and their hearts were dimmed until scarcely any sunlight was reflected at all.

Many of these people were the same that demanded that Joshua the sun man be shattered and his heart smothered. And despite the many cries and pleas of the moon people, they shattered this willing sun man into a million pieces. The entire world was consumed in pitch darkness, and no stars shined. But Joshua promised the lantern people he would be alive again, and within three days, the sun rays reached across the morning sky. Most were astonished, and some refused to believe it was because of Joshua. But many more were given hope and remembered the second promise of Joshua: that there would come a day where there would be complete daylight – with rays more vibrant than before the original moon man and moon woman shut their eyes from the sun man in a sin that cast their world into the dark and released the creature of the night.

The creature was onyx with slit eyes and a hiss. He loved the darkness and hated when the sun man arrived. He and his minions searched out shadows to hide in when a moon person with a vivid reflection and clear glass was around. He hated to be revealed. In these shadows, he hissed to entice this moon person. When one surrendered, the glass appeared more dingy and the reflection was dimmed. In such cases, a firefly with its sunlight was often sent as a guide, and he or she pled to be cleansed and cleared.

The hiss sounds sweet as honey and is inevitable to succumb to when a lantern person is born. Their hearts are dimmed and their glass seems to be made of iced mud. At some point in the life of a Lantern, he or she must decide to seek the sun man so their hearts may reflect his with fiery sunlight. Such consumes them so that when their glass is cleared, they radiate the sun all around and their colors are so prominent that some moon people want to become vibrant as well, while some despise them for it.

Sometimes, the sun man allowed fierce storms so the rain may clarify their glass if they stand in the midst of it. There were some mornings where mist consumed the woods and even the most vivid moon people were only able to see by the fiery sunlight of Joshua and not their moonlight. Sometimes a Lantern was cracked again, and another lantern person laid his or her hands on the crack to meld it. The more their moon shined and their glass was clear, the more heat came from their hands.

The ashamed lantern person, whose heart yet pulsed with the reflection of the sun, wove threads of spider web to smother the appearance of sunlight to appear as those moon people who were so afraid and hateful of the sunlight that their hearts were dimmed and they clothed themselves in obsidian paint. These moon people sometimes teased the lantern people as they avoided their sunlight. Some of the moon people remained unclothed with their dimmed hearts, and were reflecting enough to not tease the lantern people, but sometimes even they evaded the sunlight. But the moon person who accepted the embrace of a lantern person and started to seek the sun man his or herself was the most beautiful sight in the woods. Their surroundings would become brighter, and the moon people who already lived with the sun man rejoiced.

The Lanterns each were accorded abilities with their varieties of color. Some played lovely music with wooden violins, while some painted the beautiful scenes they distinguished in the sunlight. Some were readily able to meld the cracks, and some were more contagious in that their sunlight ignited another. And as each practiced his or her abilities, their hearts shined brighter and illuminated the world around them.

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